Joshua Finley
Monique Williams
English 1A
22 December 2013
Student
Loans and Higher Education
Have you thought about attending
college but realized you can’t afford it? well, neither can anyone else, we are
stuck in the poverty class and the way education is now the dollar signs keep
going up and loans keep stacking interest. The book The Rich and The Rest of Us by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West is
about poverty in America and how it affects different areas of our country. Its
focus has a lot to do about education and how the future of our nation depends
on the twenty first century, but is restricted because of the poverty level we
are in. Higher education is very important to this century because it defines
our future. The lifetime commitment on student loans drives students away from
attending college.
The interest that builds on to
student loans will eventually destroy their credit and they will never pay it
back. Going to college is something people see as a life goal or
accomplishment. As we finish high school we are molded into finding our path or
what we call a career to reach successfully. Nowadays for us as a middle class
we are stuck in poverty and college isn’t in the picture due to the cost
required to attend college. It is impossible to pay for school unless you are a
part of the one percent; which is the rich people, or take out loans you will
be paying off the majority of your life. “Something is profoundly wrong in America
when the younger you are, the more likely you are to be poor” (Smiley, West
56). This is relevant to how; us as the middle class are labeled with a debt before
we can even manage our own money. Students are like ATMs to the loan companies because
they will keep pulling money out from us as long as they can. If we take
student loans out to pay for school the interest on loans will get bigger and
will be not payable.
The amount of money it cost to go to
school discourages people from attempting an opportunity at a higher education.
When you look at the rich or the wealthy, you see all the luxuries they have
and the nice big time schools they attended because they have the money to pay
for all of it. As we see the middle class under poverty and not able to pay for
higher education it shows that the education system isn’t functioning properly.
In order to be successful in this country it seems you have to be born rich;
kids that want to attend college don’t do so because they don’t qualify for
grants or just can’t afford the tuition. “Odds are, a poor child today will
wind up being a poor adult” (Smiley, West 185). So we are projected that being
poor as a child in the twenty first century means that you grow in the same
poverty level. As we are supposed to be the future of our country we really
have nothing to look forward to if we have to pay for our education.
There should be no fees for higher
education as long as we maintain passing grades. Public schools; K-12th
are funded majority by how many students attend the school. Some schools are
funded more and some less depending on the area. As we complete high school and
are given a diploma of completion are focus is to go to college and further are
goals and career. College today is a barrier for students which affects are
poverty level because we don’t have a chance to get out of it. “The greatest
threat to America’s national security comes from no enemy without but from our
own failure to protect, invest in, and educate all of our children who make up
all of our futures”(Smiley, West 49). In high school we received grades on how
we did in the class, if we failed we would have to retake it in order to move
on. College should be looked at the same way based on grades. People should be
able to attend college with no charge as long as they maintain a passing grade
point average. As our government says that education is important then we
should get the chance to change the future.
Overall we tend to not notice how
important school really is because we are forced to look the other way due to
the cost. The amount of money it takes to finish college is the amount you can
put down on a house, thinking of it that way is discouraging feeling living in
the poverty level. Also the loans that are available pretty much make you sign
a lifelong contract because the interest on them are continuously increasing,
and will take longer to pay off then you actually attended school. Higher education
should be free, as long as a qualified grade point average is reached by each
student.
